2009 Africa Mission Trip - John & Cindi Myers

On January 31, 2009 Cindi & John flew to Kigoma, Tanzania.  We stayed a month returning home on March 2^nd. 

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§ Compound Site Two - We lived while in Kigoma in a walled compound that the Wertz’s refer to as site two.  The compound is surrounded by a double wall with a mote, and a heavy wrought iron gate with a guard 24-7.  In the compound are two bungalows named, Kitley and Calvin house, a computer school, several shipping containers and when we arrived, the beginnings of a new community center.  The compound sits on a hill overlooking the Kigoma harbor.  From our patio we could watch ships arrive at the container port to our left and fishing boats come and go from the village on our right.

§ Kitley - Calvin Houses - These photos are of the two bungalow guest houses.

• Computer School - The main purpose of our trip was for John to teach Microsoft Excel at the computer school.  Two one week long classes were taught with about 24 students in each class.  Teaching materials were prepared and translated into Swahili and computers were tested, repaired and software installed.
• Community Center - On our arrival the digging for the foundations had just began for the community center.  This will be a large building with, a large hall in the center, a library on one end with a radio station above, bath rooms and a kitchen on the other end with staff offices above.  By the end of the month the foundations were complete.  A year later the shell is complete and roof installed.
• Well Drilling - The same day we arrived, two missionaries from Texas arrived to drill a well on site two.  Many problems were overcome and the well was finally completed a few days after we left.  Since then several more wells have been drilled in the area.
• Feeding Center - Kimberly’s Pyote - Since Cindi’s last visit in 2006 the numbers of orphans have grown during the feeding program on M-W-F.  The staple of beans ‘n rice are served along with a youth leader who leads them in song and Bible story telling and prayer.
• Containers - Nothing goes to waste, so shipping containers become offices, storage rooms, and clothing sorting rooms.
• Sewing - Photos of various sewing activity, including sewing banners for church and cushions for new furniture for the guest houses.
• Paulo Cindi had the privilege to visit with Paulo 3 times a week with Pastor Rudo and pray with him, and massage his atrophied arm and leg from the stroke that he had a few months ago.
• Gungu UMC - This is the first UMC church established in Tanzania.  We attended here 2 Sundays one of which was a special youth Sunday with several guest missionaries and youth from other churches attending with a meal following the service.
• Kibrizi Pentecostal Church - We arrived in Kigoma on Saturday afternoon.  The next morning we attended this church about 1.5 miles away in the fishing village of Kibrizi.  The walls for a new brick church are being built around the little thatch church.  Note the dirt floor and rough benches.  As guests we sat in white plastic chairs similar to the patio chairs we use in America.
• Kigoma - Around Town - This batch of photos were taken in and around the town.
• Proposed Site for Hospital These photos were taken of the proposed hospital site.
• Ujji Trip -  These photos were taken during a drive from Kigoma to Ujiji and back to visit the Dr. Livingstone Monument.  Ujiji is also famous as the site of the beginning of the “Trail of Tears”. Arab traders brought captured slaves from the interior by boat to Ujiji then marched them several hundred miles in chains to the coast.  From there they were again loaded onto boats and transported to Stone Town on Zanzibar to be sold in the slave markets.  The buyers then put them on ships to various Arab countries.
• Dr. Livingston Monument - We visited the site in Ujiji where Henry Stanley met Dr. David Livingston in 1871 on the shore of Lake Tanganyika with the famous words “Dr. Livingston I presume.”
• Wertz House - Photos taken in and around the Wert residence.  Every evening we gathered for supper at the Wertz’s, then read emails from home using their internet connection.  During supper the sun would set behind the mountains in the Congo on the other side of the lake.
• Tanzania by Air - These photos were taken on the trip to/from Dar to Kigoma and back.
• Dar es Salam - Photos taken in the capital.  Dar has sky scrapers, air conditioning, and freeways.  Dar is the main import/export point for the country.
• Maritime Best - These are my favorite pictures of maritime subjects from Kigoma harbor and Lake Tanganyika.
• Zanzibar - On our way home we took a two day side trip from Dar to Zanzibar.  We stayed at a beach resort in the village of Paje on the Indian Ocean.  On our way to the Airport we stopped for a few hours to tour Stone Town.
• Stone Town - Founded by Arab traders over 300 years ago, the name comes from the fact that the town is made of stone and mortar covered with lime plaster.  This Arab building practice is very foreign to Southern Africa where buildings were made of sun dried bricks or wood.  The town has narrow winding streets, often to narrow for cars with building often 3 or 4 stories high.  People from Arabia, Persia, and India came here to trade spices especially cloves and slaves.  Each ethnic group had their own quarter and the ornate design of their front door designated their origin.  Zanzibar and the adjoining island still are major producers of cloves.
• Road Trip These photos were taken on the drive from Zanzibar City to Paje.  Note that houses here are made of cement blocks instead of brick as in Kigoma.
• Paje Beach Resort This beach resort town is frequented by some Europeans but mostly white South Africans looking for warmer weather.  When the tide goes out the water recedes over a mile.  Villagers catch fish by trapping them in weirs as the tides go out.
• Sailing a Dugout Canoe -  Cindi and I wanting to say we sailed on the Indian Ocean , hired a sailing canoe for a couple of hours.  No motor, no safety gear, no radio just a home made sail with holes held up with polypropylene lines.  It was a trip to say the least.
• Incongruent - In some ways these are some of my favorite photos.  They show things that we westerners find absurd, odd or funny.  One Incongruent thing I did not get a picture of was that first day in Kigoma sitting in the thatch roofed church with dirt floor listening to musicians play electric guitars and a parishioner video tape the service with a hand held camcorder.  The clash between African and Western Culture, primitive and modern can be seen everywhere.  One day I watched a front end loader fill a dump truck with sand on my left while women on my right carried buckets of stone on their heads!  Dug out canoes sit beside fiberglass runabouts and cows mingle with tourists on the beach.  Modern ships and ancient Dhows plight the same water.  The hotel we stayed at in Dar cost 100 US dollars per night and the average wage was barely one dollar per day.  In Zanzibar people preferred to be paid in US dollars rather than Tanzanian shillings, the menu was in US dollars even though the majority of the customers were from South Africa, however items in a store were designated in shillings.  Hopefully you get the idea of incongruent.

Here is a link to John & Cindi’s other travels home page including other missions trips as well as sailing adventures on their boat.